HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 3942        FILED ON: 1/14/2009

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 2898

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the Year Two Thousand Nine

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An Act Relative to senior property tax credit..

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

Chapter 59 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 5k the following section:-

Section 5L.  In any city or town which accepts the provisions of this section, the board of selectmen of a town or in a municipality having a town council form of government, the town council or the mayor with the approval of the city council in a city may establish a program to allow persons over the age of 65 to receive a credit on their property tax bill based on the school expenditures for that city or town.  In order to qualify for this credit, the person must be 65 years of age or older as of the year of application and who has been a resident for l0 years or more in the town, has paid property taxes for l0 years or more and utilizes the property as his principal residence and there is no one staying in the residence for more than 60 days during the fiscal year who is either under the age of 6 years old or who attends a public or private pre-school, nursery school, elementary school, middle school, junior high school or senior high school or similar school.

Applicants shall meet the following income and asset requirements for eligibility, if single incomes of %50,000 or less, if married %60,000 or less and assets of %75,000 or less not including the primary residence and l motor vehicle registered to the applicant.  The assessments and tax rate changes of senior qualified properties shall be recalculated on an annual basis.  The lesser of the calculations will prevail as the property tax levy for that year.  For the purpose of this exemption, income means the “adjusted gross income” for federal income tax purposes as reported on the applicant’s latest available federal or state income tax return for the applicable income tax year, subject to any subsequent amendments or revisions, reduced by distributions, to the extent included in federal adjusted gross income, received from an individual retirement account and an individual retirement annuity; provided that if no such return was filed for the application income tax year, income means the adjusted gross income that would have been so reported if such a return had been filed.

The amount of the credit shall be calculated as follows:

The amount of the total tax due the municipality from the qualifying senior shall be multiplied by the amount the municipality pays for schools divided by the amount of the total town budget for that fiscal year, divided by l0.  For qualifying individuals, whose income is less than $l8,000 per year, the above credit shall be twice that amount.

The city or town shall reduce the real property tax obligations of such person over the age of 65 on his tax bills and any reduction so provided shall be in addition to any exemption or abatement to which any such person is otherwise entitled.

Participation in this program is nullified when the homeowner who is 65 or older moves permanently from the property or the property is sold and deeded to a new owner.  The board of assessors shall prepare a simple application for participation in the program and shall oversee its administration.  In no instance shall the amount by which this program reduces a person’s property tax liability be considered income for the purpose of taxation.

Such cities and towns shall have the power to create local rules and procedures for implementing this section any way consistent with the intent of this section.